Who represents a better fit for Radamel Falcao: Arsenal or Tottenham?
What a season it has been for Porto in Portugal, under the management of André Villas-Boas the club has won the treble of the Primeira Liga (Portugese league) the Taça de Portugal and the Europa League. Highly rated Boas has steered Porto through an unbeaten league season where they finished over 20 points ahead of second placed Benfica, with the subsequent success in the cups causing his and Porto’s stock to skyrocket. As such Boas and his best players have been eyed by the giants of European football, with teams like Chelsea Barcelona Manchester United and Real Madrid being credited with an interest. However, we will look in more detail at the future of star striker Radamel Falcao in this article.
Radamel Falcao is the 25 year old star striker of the Porto team, hailing from Columbia he has become a sensation at the Portuguese club having scored 73 goals in his 2 seasons at the club. This represents a phenomenal return on his 85 appearances, and as such the vultures have begun to circle over Porto baying for the signatures of their prized assets, and the Columbian Falcao is certainly one. So firstly let’s examine the potential suitors for Falcao, with the quotes emanating from the striker’s agent this week shining some light on his potential destination stating:
“England are crazy about Falcao. Among the leading candidates are Arsenal and Tottenham. They are willing to hit the €30m [£25.9m] clause. The figure is not an extraordinary value for them.”
So according to Mossi the most likely destination for his client is England, and more specifically North London. Yet, which of the North London clubs will Falcao eventually choose and will his decision be a fruitful one for him and for his new club? Tottenham’s interest is of no surprise to anyone due to their lack of a genuine world class striker, and their overdependence this season upon goals from midfield to compete.
Tottenham’s group of four strikers, Peter Crouch (4), Jermain Defoe (4), Robbie Keane (0) and Roman Pavlyuchenko (10) contributed 18 league goals combined this season, which is the same number as Robin van Persie scored on his own. This fact has not escaped Redknapp who argued that:
“Normally Defoe would have had 18 goals by now. Crouchy hasn’t scored many – he’s scored his goals in Europe … We’re still in it without the frontmen scoring the goals they should have done.”
Thus, it’s clear that Redknapp appears to be in the market for a striker, especially after his rebuffed bids for the likes of Aguero and Llorente in January. With the service from Bale and Lennon on the wings I feel that Falcao would thrive at White Hart Lane, yet it isn’t here that I feel he will transfer to in the summer.
The place that I feel that Falcao will be plying his trade next season is Arsenal, with the opportunity of higher wages, better team mates and the opportunity to test himself against the very best European opposition in the Champion’s League. It makes very little sense for Falcao to move to Tottenham and play in the Europa league after winning the tournament with Porto and having the opportunity to play in the Champion’s League with Porto next season. Quite frankly it would be a nonsensical move for the Columbian. Whereas in joining Arsenal Falcao could play against the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney in next season’s Champion’s League. Furthermore, Falcao could pocket increased wages and play alongside quality players such as van Persie, Vermaelen and Jack Wilshere.
Will Arsene Wenger break the habit of a lifetime and spend big money on a ready made talent? Only time will tell, but the move would be mutually beneficial for both parties with Arsenal gaining a world class striker and Falcao having the chance to test himself against the best in the world.
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May 30th, 2011
Assuming Arsenal qualify for the CL!
May 31st, 2011
Of course.
May 30th, 2011
He’ll probably stay where he is this offseason. I doubt Wenger wants him and I doubt he wants Spurs. He could end up at City or even Man United if Berbatov goes in the summer. But Spurs? even if they could afford his transfer fee they couldn’t match the wages of any of this season’s top four in England, not to mention no Champions League.
May 31st, 2011
Staying at Porto is certainly an option. They just won the treble, have fantastic players and have Champions League football next season.
Also, if you listen to the reports then it looks like they will offer him a lot of money to stay a couple more years. Would be very tempting.
May 31st, 2011
I think spurs is jst some bunch of over rated club,no player would ever choose spurs over arsenal,for falcao i tink spurs gat a problem,trying to buy a player in d champions league to come and play in d europa cup,and we all knw spurs gat no ambition 4 nxt season apart 4rm trying to defeat arsenal.I tink spurs beta start goin to the championship to buy players cos no good player wud join those bunch of wacky players.c’mon check out their goals diff 4 d last season its pathetic.spurs shud face reality they are nt beta than fulham,they are meant 4 europa cup nxt season to finish 6th.
May 31st, 2011
I think spurs is jst some bunch of over rated club,no player would ever choose spurs over arsenal,for falcao i tink spurs gat a problem,trying to buy a player in d champions league to come and play in d europa cup,and we all knw spurs gat no ambition 4 nxt season apart 4rm trying to defeat arsenal.I tink spurs beta start goin to the championship to buy players cos no good player wud join those bunch of wacky players.c’mon check out their goals diff 4 d last season its pathetic.spurs shud face reality they are nt beta than fulham,they are meant 4 europa cup nxt season to finish 6th..
May 31st, 2011
Precious…Sigh. ‘Blinkered’ is the word that comes to mind. As does ‘Sad’, ‘Scared’, ‘Desperate’ and the phrase ‘Barely literate’. As for George McNeil, thank you for admitting you’re an Arsenal supporter. It makes the article much easier to understand, written from that perspective. You’re an Arsenal fan, so naturally any article of yours where Spurs are involved would tend to be pro-Arsenal(not necessarily anti-Spurs, but this article does seem to be). It’s closet supporters in the media who repeatedly write up absolute nonsense under the banner of impartiality that gets my goat. It only enrages, ever. As for the debate, yes, perhaps the Europa League is a step down from the CL, and perhaps Falcao would prefer immediate CL football. But if he really is an ambitious player, he would do well to look at the future of both clubs beyond this season. There is no guarantee that either would finish in what looks to be an increasingly Northern-dominated top-four. In that respect, perhaps some bold moves by Levy early on this summer would convince him of our ambition. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t got money to spend. We had 35 million pound bids turned down on the last day of the window for any and every good striker on god’s green earth. That would probably be enhanced by the impending firesale of fringe players and the CL money. So it is possible.
May 31st, 2011
And, incidentally, you didn’t really provide any reasons as to why you think your squad is any better than ours. Like I said, for every good Arsenal player, there’s one at Spurs plying their trade. The two squads are closer in terms of quality now than they have been in the past twenty five years. Sure, Arsenal are regarded as the ‘bigger’ team, but that doesn’t answer for the relative lack of disparity between the two squads of players.
May 31st, 2011
The gap is at it’s nearest I agree. The nearest season in recent memory was 05/06 though, the season where it looked likely for Spurs to finish higher.
It is my opinion that the squad is better, it might not be true, but the better squad tends to finish the highest. Thus the MUFC squad is better than CFC, which in turn is better than MCFC and so on.
Falcao, or a player of his ilk is a necessity at Spurs, as the stats in the article suggest. If Spurs keep the majority of the squad and gain a quality keeper and striker then they will be a real threat for sure.
This article was not meant to be anti-Spurs, and if it came across that way then I apologise. There are quality players, but what I guess I was trying to say was that a lot raised their form sporadically. Bale had a tremendous spell, followed by an indifferent one, likewise VdV. If their form is consistent (ala Modric) then I would count them as world class.